Album Reviews : Vanity Riots – Vanity Riots

The name, the artwork, the song titles, it all screams fun. Unfortunately by the end of the disc, that is one thing that’s lacking. The same can essentially be said for all five songs on Vanity Riots – everything is just too simple, and lacks the power or groove to make up for it.

Vanity Riots sit somewhere between alt-rock and Motley Crue-styled glam, but in a bit of a bland grey area. The guitar work and the drumming are both fairly uninteresting, and aren’t the type of thing to get you moving, which makes the alt-rock side of things a bit of a failure. And likewise with the glam side, however on that front they’re missing the pure energy and enthusiasm that can make even the most basic music ridiculously addictive. Vocalist Monica Strut isn’t particularly bad, but again, doesn’t have a whole lot of character or individuality.

“Drama” has a fairly catchy chorus, and it’s those melodies that she does well, but unfortunately in that case the rest of the band are lacking the balls to really make the moment sound big. “These Notes” is the one song that works; Monica varies up her vocals a bit more, and there’s actually some guts to the riffs and general thickness to the sound, although the mix holds it back from its full potential.

Mitch Booth is the owner, designer and grand overlord of Metal Obsession. In the few seconds of spare time he has outside of this site, he also hosts a metal radio show over on PBS 106.7fm in Melbourne (Australia) and organises shows under the name Untitled Touring. You should follow him on Twitter.